C&T Publishing is a group of quilters and crafters dedicated to publishing products tailored to our audience. This blog is where we break away from book schedules and marketing campaigns to focus on what drives us to be creative and how this creativity manifests itself in our every day lives.
Category Archives: Quilting Tips Series
“Quilting Tips from the Technical Editors” Takes a Hiatus
The Technical Editors here at C&T have been publishing tips on this blog for two years. They’ve posted over 30 tips, covering topics from beginning piecing to binding and everything in between. Now it’s time to take a break.
You can always access the tips by clicking on the Quilting Tips Series in the categories section on the right. We’ll keep this available for you. Please write in if you have a request for a new tip or a question on (Continue Reading...)
Quiltmaking Tips: An Easier Way to Finish Your Binding
I’ve always finished my binding by sewing the beginning end to the ending end using a diagonal seam. But trying to get the two ends right sides together at right angles, then drawing and sewing on that diagonal line (see our previous post: Quliting Tips: Binding) can be difficult and a bit unwieldy. This past weekend, I used a method I’ve found in quite a few books over the years: tucking the ending end into the beginning end.
Here’s the method: (Continue Reading...)
Quilting Tips: Backstitching seams
When piecing blocks, quilters take a personal approach to backstitching their seams. A common method is not to backstitch when seams will cross. However, if backstitching is desired, here is one way to minimize the multiple layers of stitches:
Insert the sewing machine needle about the length of 3 stitches into the seam line, while maintaining your seam allowance width. Sew backwards for 3 stitches, then stitch forward down the length of the seam. With this method, there are (Continue Reading...)
Quiltmaking Tips: Quilting Shapes on Quilts
Do you avoid free motion quilting or free hand drawing with your sewing machine because you feel you are not good at it? Don’t let that stop you from doing some machine quilting. Mary Mashuta gives you great ways to quilt wonderful gently curved designs in her book, Foolproof Machine Quilting. She shows you that by using a walking foot with the feed dogs up, you can sew around a few predrawn shapes. Your quilting will be even and professional (Continue Reading...)
Harriet Hargrave’s Quilter’s Graph Paper
Harriet Hargrave’s Quilter’s Graph Paper is a tool any versatile quilter should know about. Acquiring full control of a quilt happens when all variables of a quilt have been explored and considered, thus producing endless options and directions for your quilt to aspire to.
Think of sewing a blue dress according to the pattern. If you were to explore, change, and tweak it, that “plain Jane” dress could potentially become a one-of-a-kind “turn heads” garment. If that’s the approach you’d like (Continue Reading...)
Quilting Tips: For Beginners—Anatomy of a Quilt
As with any first-time venture, it is important that you recognize and understand the key components of your new undertaking.
A quilt is basically a three-layer fabric “sandwich.” The finished quilt top is layered with filler—called batting—and a backing fabric, and the three layers are then secured together with stitching. This stitching may be decorative or strictly utilitarian; in either case, it is called quilting. Finally, the edges of the stitched quilt sandwich are finished with fabric strips, called (Continue Reading...)
Quiltmaking Tips: Adding a Facing to Finish a Quilt
Author Sylvia Pippen is a fan of quilt facing as a means for finishing off her quilts. A faced quilt hangs very straight and gives a clean edge without introducing another design element. Unlike a quilt binding, a quilt facing is turned to the back of the quilt and shouldn’t be visible from the front.
To complete your quilt with this finishing technique, follow these steps:
1. Cut 2 strips 2″-3″ wide by the length of the quilt sides.
2. With (Continue Reading...)
Quilting Tips: Setting Triangles
When you position quilt blocks on point (also called a diagonal set), you need to fill in the outer edges of the quilt with triangle-shaped cuts of fabric. Triangles along the side of the quilt are called side setting triangles. Corner setting triangles fit the corners of the quilt.
To calculate the size to cut the side setting triangles:
Multiply the finished size of your block by 1.414
Add 1 1/4″ to that number
Cut a square equal to the sum
Cut the square twice, (Continue Reading...)
Quilting Tips: Using a Proportional Scale
A proportional scale is a handy tool to use when you want to figure out how much bigger to make a design drawing or pattern to fit where you want. It is a sliding scale with two wheels. The inner, smaller one gives the sizes of your starting drawing. The outer, larger wheel provides the comparable larger sizes of the drawing you want.
For instance, start with a drawing that is 8″ x 12″ and you know that you want to (Continue Reading...)
Quilting Tips: Determining Bed Quilt Measurements
Do you want to make a quilt for your nephew’s twin bed or your sister’s king size bed but you are not sure what size those mattresses are or what size quilt will fit them? OR have you ever seen a project in a book that you love, but you need to know whether or not it will fit on your bed, or how much you will have to adjust it to get it to be the size you want? (Continue Reading...)
